TOPIC:

Hello everyone,

James Grant Riach fought as Captain in the Scottish Horse in the siege of Kimberley, I think.
The family story goes that James defected and went on to join the Boers.
Is there anyway of finding this out?

Very grateful for any help or suggestions.
Regards,
Gloria.

Hi Gloria,

Welcome to the Forum; it looks like there may be an interesting story here.

Without too much digging I've located a Capt James Grant Riach of the 1st Scottish Horse with a comment "On Black List" against it.

I'll have a quick look and see what else I can find.

Regards,
Sturgy

Hi Gloria,

Another quick search and it looks like Capt JG Riach was born 22 July 1874 (Inverness) and died 5 June 1940 (Bulawayo) and here is his obituary which you may have seen before:



There are folks on this forum who are a lot smarter than me so I'm sure they can shed light on the reason for his "black list". However, what I'm struggling with is that the obituary says he was with the Scottish Horse in the Defence of Kimberley; but the Scottish Horse were only formed afterwards.

Looks like he was with the Scottish Horse from 20/01/1901 to 10/05/01:



He also appears on "Claims not approved by commander-in-chief":



Anyway I hope that helped but I must admit that a few things don't add up; but perhaps the smart folks on this forum can help decipher some of the medal roll information; or correct me as I'm still a newbie.

Gloria
Our Host's book "Kimberley Siege Account and Medal Roll" shows your Capt. Riach of the Scottish Horse as being entitled to clasps Defence of Kimberley, Transvaal and SA1901 on his QSA. On Black List for Scottish Horse and served 20/1/1901 to 10/5/1901. Also served in the Intelligence Dept. in Kimberley. Clearly, he must have been with another unit during the Siege.
I had a look in the Buxton FID book but did not find his name there.
Regards
IL.

Looks like Captain Riach also served as a Trooper.



Regards

Dave......

Thank you sincerely everyone, for your replies and a bit more on Grandpa-in-law James.
We do know of his working for the Post Office, his moving around and what he did, prior to finally settling with his family in Plumtree.
The obituary and most other stuff is all noted on our family tree on Ancestry.
Hubby and I (me in particular as I maintain the tree), would love to know if James did defect, just to have a complete story.
Once again, thank you, thank you